Our Team

John D. Mays

John is the founder of Novare Science & Math, LLC. His degrees include a BS in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M University, a Master of Education degree in Secondary Education from the University of Houston, a Master of Liberal Arts degree from St. Edwards University. He also has completed 36 hours of graduate study in the field of Physics. John worked as an engineer and engineering manager for 14 years from 1982 to 1999, with a break for graduate study and teaching appointments.

John entered the field of education in 1985 teaching math in the public school system. Since then he has also taught science and math professionally in Episcopal schools and classical-model Christian high schools. He taught math and 20th Century American Literature part-time at St. Edwards University for 10 years and mathematics at Concordia University. He taught full-time at Regents School of Austin from 1999-2012, serving as Math-Science Department Chair for eight years, and he continues to teach at Regents on a part time basis serving as the Director of the Laser Optics Lab. John is the author of six textbooks and many resources including The Student Lab Report Handbook, Teaching Science so that Students Learn Science, and Science for Every Teacher.

He has three adult children and lives with his wife in Austin, Texas.

Jeffrey Mays

Jeffrey is Director of Marketing and technology administrator. Jeffrey has been an educator in public and private schools, and has homeschooled one of his own children using Novare materials. He has been a teacher of bible, apologetics, history, math, and science. He taught part time at Regents School of Austin where he also served as Operations Manager for 5 years.

From 2000 to 2004 he was a pastor in PCA churches. Before that he was a computer system administrator. Jeffrey received a BS degree in Computer Science in 1990 from Baylor University where he also received a teaching certificate. He also received a M.Div from Covenant Theological Seminary in 2000.

Jeffrey is a fiction writer and his 2014 debut novel titled The Former Hero was 1st place winner of the Texas Association of Authors prize for Suspense/Thriller.

Jeffrey has four adult children and lives with his wife in Austin, Texas.

Emily Cook

Emily Cook is a Sales Representative and has been working with Novare since 2014.

In 2009, Emily received a BA in English from Trinity University in San Antonio, TX. After graduating, she spent five years teaching literature and developing curriculum at Trinity Christian School, a classical school in Kailua, Hawaii. She also developed and taught courses in writing, drama, logic, and Trinity’s rhetoric and senior thesis course.

She and her husband Joel live in San Antonio, TX, with their two young children.

Rebekah Mays

Rebekah Mays started working with Novare in 2012 as an editorial assistant. She now serves as the company’s Market Researcher and Social Media Coordinator where she regularly draws from her early years as a student in John’s physics and pre-calculus classes.

In 2012 she received a BA from Barnard College. Four years later, she received a Master of Arts in English and American Literature from the University of Kent. She also has three years of experience teaching English as a Second Language to adults and children in the Czech Republic and France.